The match was no great shakes with very little competition let alone a cricket duel. Punjab Kings put to bat first lost wickets regularly but seemed allergic to making runs. They stopped at 111 in a bizarre run out as Mustafiz bowled an excellent final giving only 4/5. In the last ball , Arshadeep moved to get a run but the batter wasn’t interested and so he was marooned and was run out casually by the keeper. Everyone seemed perplexed by it all including the Delhi Capitals who were playing under the shadow of a Covid scare. It summed up Punjab kings well on the day, lost and ran out. The Fizz was back and many Bangladeshis watched the match with some degree of anxiety, hoping that nobody would do a 28 in a single over to Fizz like the last game.  Thank heavens no one did and Fizz had a decent figure of 1 for 28 runs with 7 rpo. PK was hardly in a murderous mood and all the bowlers were spared the agony of being bashed to the boundaries. Confidence in the Fizz is still there and he looked fine in the field . Khaleel,Llatif, Axar and Kuldeep all got 2 wickets and basically the bowlers did their job so well that the match was basically over once Punjab folded their innings. In the chase, Delhi barely crossed the 10th over taking only 63 runs to reach their target. Warner was fantastic in his 60 and had a strike rate of 200%. He was partnered by Prithvi Shaw who was out on 41 with a strike rate of 205 %. It was a great match for watching boundaries and both hit at will. Shaw was the only wicket Delhi lost and Sarfaraz coming in next didn’t have to do much before victory was won. READ: IPL Nights: RCB complete comfortable win over tame Lucknow It was awfully one sided.  As the Punjab captain Mayank Agarwal said,  “We didn't bat and bowl well, we just need to move on from today.”  That spirit was on display sadly for their fans. So how does one rate a match that was predictable as soon as just one innings was over? Not much fun. IPL T20 is an adrenalin fix and that means the dose has to be increased regularly to keep the viewer hooked.  After 2 sort of not very exciting matches in a row, even the Fizz being taken to the dhobi seems worth watching again. Oh, the dangerous pleasures of T20 cricket cocaine. 

Play of day two of the Dhaka Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan delayed by the rain on Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.  At 11:25 am on Sunday, the match referee declared an early lunch break in Mirpur.  According to the Bangladesh Metrological Department, the weather got bad due to deep depression over the Bay of Bengal.  Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) on Saturday  predicted rain or thundershowers in many parts of the country in the next 24 hours. READ: Shakib writes to BCB to skip NZ tour There was no play after the tea break of day one as well. When play stopped, Pakistan were batting at 161 for two with Azhar Ali and Babar Azam were unbeaten for 36 and 60 respectively.  Bangladesh left-arm spinner Taijul Islam bagged two wickets in the first session of the match.  Earlier, in the first Test in Chattogram, Bangladesh lost by eight wickets.  READ: Shoriful added to Bangladesh’s Test team for New Zealand tour This is Bangladesh’s first series in the new cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. In the previous cycle, Bangladesh played seven matches and lost six of them with only a draw. 

Left-arm bowlers Nasum Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman bagged four wickets each as Bangladesh wrapped up New Zealand for 93 in 19.3 overs in the fourth T20I of the five-match series on Wednesday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. New Zealand, once again, won the toss, and opted to bat first but failed to have a good start as they lost the first wicket with no score on the board.  Nasum removed Rachin Ravindra off the fifth ball of the first over. Inside the power play New Zealand lost only one more wicket.  READ: New Zealand opt to bat first in 4th T20I vs Bangladesh Finn Allen (12), Tom Latham (21) and Will Young (46) did well with the bat, but after their departure, the other New Zealand batsmen failed to continue the momentum.   In the 12th over Nasum removed Henry Nicholls and Coiln de Grandhomme for one and a duck respectively. The last five of the New Zealand batsmen scored only 11 runs. In the last over, Mustafizur removed Will Young and Blair Tickner from two consecutive deliveries.  READ: To take the series, Tigers must dig deep against resurgent Kiwis While Nasum bagged four for 10, his best in the format, Mustafizur scalped 4 for 12. Mahedi Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin bagged one wicket each.